The real estate magnate and Republican megadonor who bankrolled a documentary about Clarence Thomas that got consideration for a 2020 Oscar also provided decades’ worth of undisclosed luxury vacations to the Supreme Court justice, according to a bombshell report from ProPublica.
Now, many are calling for the justice’s impeachment or resignation – including New York representative Alexandria Ocasio Ortez, who tweeted: “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
The documentary funded in part by Dallas businessman Harlan Crow, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” portrayed the longest serving current Supreme Court justice as a regular guy.
“I don’t have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States, and I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States,” Thomas said in the doc. “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” Thomas continued, adding, “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that — I prefer being around that.”
But Thomas’s reality is a bit more gold-plated, ProPublica reported.
The nonprofit news outlet, citing documents and interviews, found that for more than two decades, Thomas has accepted annual luxury trips from Crow without disclosing them.
He has vacationed on Crow’s super-yacht around the globe, said the report, which included Instagram photos of Thomas and his wife, Ginni, with a group in Indonesia. The couple’s flight on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet and nine days on the 162-foot yacht would be valued at about $500,000, according to the report.
Thomas has also gone with Crow — who has donated upwards of $10 million to the Republican Party — to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s “sprawling” ranch in East Texas, ProPublica said, and “typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.”
“The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court,” the news outlet wrote. “These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht.”
In a statement to ProPublica, Crow acknowledged that he’d extended “hospitality” to the Thomases “over the years,” but said that it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
“We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” Crow’s statement said. “More generally, I am unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that. These are gatherings of friends.”
The report generated a swath of condemnation from liberal pundits and politicians, including calls for impeachment from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Ortez, who tweeted: “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
Some said he shouldn’t wait for an impeachment. “Is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas corrupt? I don’t know,” tweeted California Rep. Ted Lieu. “But his secretive actions absolutely have the appearance of corruption. And he apparently violated the law. For the good of the country, he should resign.”
While most current GOP office holders were quiet on the report, former Republican House member Adam Kinzinger tweeted “Regardless of your politics, this cannot be acceptable.”
